是大臣精讲E1

剧前政治知识

• 英国议会parliament
• 下议院house of commons
  • 主要实际权力机构，650个Members of Parliament(MPs)对应650个选区
  • 五年一次大选
  • 赢得多数席位（半数席位326席及以上）的政党党魁成为首相prime minister
  • prime minister挑选20位大臣cabinet ministers组成内阁
• 上议院house of lords
  • 负责审查，约800名，都是贵族
• 君主monarch

与内阁对应的是影子内阁，是执政党反对者创建的。

除上述之外，还有庞大的支持体系：文官civil service，非政治性公务员，属于support staff，提供行政支持

主角

• Jim Hacker
• sir Humphrey Appleby
• Bernard Woolley

第一集

• get a post 获得一个职位
• the celebration do一个庆祝聚会
• I’ve had it 我受够了，表情绪上的疲惫或不耐烦
• pop out 短暂外出
• be obliges to 被迫/不得不，还表感激。这含义也是某种义务，表感激时意指欠人情
• how on earth 表惊讶，你是怎么……
• polling booth 投票隔间
• spare parts备用零件
• My whole career is going down the drain and up the spout 打水漂，drain下水口spout水壶出水口
• Hardly for me to say我说了不算
• It’s not up to me to say这不由我做主
• Top tip for the Department of Administrative Affairs is Jim Hacker小窍门，本句指DAA（行政事务部）的最佳人选是哈克
• genned up透彻
• in a rut陷于思维定势
• Were they genuinely amused at my wit, or just being rather patronising? 假意亲切实则居高临下地对待：他们是真的被我的机智逗乐了，还是只是有点屈尊俯就？；也可以表达光顾（商店、餐馆）
• cut a great swathe through all this stuffy Whitehall bureaucracy. 切透白厅官僚主义密不透风的层层包裹
  • swathe = a large area or strip, 大片区域;
  • stuffy 古板僵化的

• cut through all the red tape and streamline this creaking old bureaucratic machine.砍掉所有的繁文缛节精简这台老旧的官僚机器
  • red tape 比喻性，繁文缛节，原指用来缠绕官方文件的红丝带
  • streamline 原义流线型，引申指简化、优化
  • creaking 因老旧或压力发出的嘎吱声，引申用于形容体系或结构的陈旧低效
• getting rid of摆脱、处理掉
• redeploy调动，重新部署
• reduce overmanning减少人员过剩
• putting people out of work导致人们失业
• draft proposals政策草案
• bollocks英式俚语，蛋；balls美式
• I’m afraid that Humphrey might have delusions of grandeur..我担心汉弗莱可能有妄自尊大的想法。
  • delusion 错觉，妄想
  • grandeur 宏伟，壮丽，用来形容高贵、权威或重要性
• I’m certainly not going to be slack! 我当然不会松懈！
• To be quite truthful, I didn’t actually realise it till he barged into my office, shouting and carrying on, demanding to be let in.老实说，我并没有真正意识到这一点，直到他冲进我的办公室，大喊大叫，要求让我进去。
  • realise 意识到，明白
  • barge 猛撞、闯入
  • shout and carry on 大惊小怪
• If they were not so charming and, well, gentlemanly, you might have thought they were trying to squeeze Frank right out.如果他们不是那么迷人，那么绅士风度，你可能会认为他们正试图排挤弗兰克。
  • 时间错配，假设的是当前情况，主句反应过去的可能性
• thingumy 不重要的事或人
• rock the boat 打破平衡，制造麻烦或引发不必要的争议
• man overboard 处于危险境地或被抛弃，原义为航海中的紧急呼叫（有人落水）
• Everyone of them would have been a laughing stock within his first three months had it not been for the most rigid and impenetrable secrecy about what they were up to.如果不是因为他们所做的事情极其严格和不可揭穿的保密，他们每个人在任职的头三个月内都会成为笑柄。
  • 主语Everyone of them
  • 谓语would have been表示过去的假设，been作系动词用，构成主系表
  • 表语（主语补语）a laughing stock被嘲笑的对象
  • 时间状语with his first three months
  • 虚拟语气+倒装结构had it not been for表示“如果没有”，正常语序应当是：if it had not been for…，it是形式主语，实际主语：
  • the most rigid and impenetrable secrecy最严格和难以渗透的保密措施
  • 介词短语about what they were up to关于他们正在做的事情
• by the short and curlies 抓住小辫子
• bloody 强调语气，类似该死的
• He is running rings around Sir Humphrey.套圈了，他轻松碾压了汉弗莱
• But surely you’re not suggesting that the Minister should make a positive reference to this confidential transaction in a speech? 但你肯定不是建议部长在演讲中积极提及这一机密交易吧？
  • 虚拟语气
• fob off 用劣质东西打发某人
• smart aleck 自以为聪明的人
• the dole 失业救济金，非正式微贬义
• unemployment benefits 失业津贴，含义中性
• I was appalled. Not only by my bad luck. But I find it incredible that I, as a member of the Cabinet, should have no knowledge of forthcoming defence agreements with the Americans. Whatever has happened to the doctrine of collective responsibility that I learned about at the LSE?
• gaping, gape 过度敞开的
• precipitate
• reappraisal